Several senior managers have left El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) recently. Sources inform "Globes" that in the past few weeks the VP Operations, the chief pilot and fleet managers have left the company.
The much-publicized and worsening crisis between El Al's management and the pilots' union is causing a deep rift in the company. Today, the sides are due to meet under the auspices of Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) chairman Avi Nissenkorn, who will attempt to put an end to the dispute that has carried on for over a year and that has reached a peak in the past few weeks. Thousands of passengers have suffered flight cancellations, delays, or transfers to leased aircraft.
Yesterday evening, the El Al Pilots Association released video clips showing pilots who declared that they could have piloted flights that were cancelled to New York and Bangkok. On the departures of senior managers, the union said, "We find it sad that the CEO of the company, instead of strengthening his credibility among the senior managers who have been leaving in droves in the past week, chooses to make groundless accusations against dedicated pilots in disciplinary tribunals and in hearings, and then expects them to put their shoulders to the wheel despite the fact that he deliberately disrupts flights daily at the expense of hundreds of travelers."
This morning, an emergency meeting will be held of all El Al employees with the aim of declaring a labor dispute, which requires a vote of all employees in order to be approved. "The livelihoods of hundreds of El Al workers are in danger in the coming year. El Al's management ignores the thousands of invisible workers at the company who earn a pittance," the workers committee notice states. The committee accused the company of seeking to hide the plight of its workers from the public and therefore not allowing media coverage of today's meeting.
El Al's 6,100 workers are divided over the move to call a labor dispute. While many of them support the stance of the pilot's union and its behavior towards the company's management, others oppose the campaign and say that they are liable to lose their jobs, while employees such as flight attendants are directly hit by flight cancellations and the use of leased aircraft.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 21, 2016
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